ごろ/ぐらい

[Ryuk]

Hi guys and gals, I was wondering what the difference betweeen goro and gurai is - or if there is any difference at all?
I think goro is maybe more for numbers and gurai is for saying something is "roughly", but actually I have no idea ☝

Thank you.

 

[Tomii515]

Helloooo

Well, the way I see it is this:

～ごろ（に） = at about
~ぐらい = (for/in) about

But, honestly, I'm not sure if they're interchangeable, but this is the way I use them:

九時に起きました。(ku ji ni okimashita.)
I got up at 9:00.

九時ごろ起きました。(ku ji goro okimashita.)
I got up at about 9:00.

and

マクドナルドの前で一時間待ちました。(makudonarudo no mae de ichi jikan machimashita.)
I waited in front of MacDonald's for one hour.

マクドナルドの前で一時間ぐらい待ちました。(makudonarudo no mae de ichi ji kan gurai machimashita,)
I waited in front of MacDonald's for about one hour.

Hope this helps

Oh, by the way, I just looked in my book, and when it made a side note about ぐらい, it said "for "at about a certain time", we have another word ごろ". So, maybe they are the same, or interchangeable.

-Tommy

EDIT:

I changed the wrong particle ^^;;

 

[Toritoribe]

ごろ/ころ(頃) is used only for regarding "time". On the other hand, ぐらい/くらい is used more generally as the meaning of "about". So, as regarding "time", they are interchangeable except in the case of "～の頃", "adnominal form of verb/adjective + 頃".

今朝は九時頃に起きた。 ＝ 今朝は九時くらいに起きた。
夏頃には家が完成する。 ＝ 夏くらいには家が完成する。

学生の頃は髪が長かった。
×学生のくらいは髪が長かった。

もう彼が帰ってくる頃だ。
×もう彼が帰ってくるくらいだ。
(○もう彼が帰ってくるくらいの時間だ。)

 

[Elizabeth]

ごろ/ころ(頃) is used only for regarding "time". On the other hand, ぐらい/くらい is used more generally as the meaning of "about". So, as regarding "time", they are interchangeable except in the case of "～の頃", "adnominal form of verb/adjective + 頃".
今朝は九時頃に起きた。 ＝ 今朝は九時くらいに起きた。
夏頃には家が完成する。 ＝ 夏くらいには家が完成する。

They may be interchangeable but ごろ is a lot more common, at least in my experience, with these kinds of hourly or seasonal expressions than ぐらい・くらい。



マクドナルドの前で一時間ぐらい（ほど）待ちました。

I wouldn't use ごろ to describe an amount or length of time.


Difference between " Mae de and Mae ni" | Japan Forum (on the で、に
thing)

 

[Ryuk]

Thanks all, that has cleared things up for the time being

 

[Tomii515]

They may be interchangeable but ごろ is a lot more common, at least in my experience, with these kinds of hourly or seasonal expressions than ぐらい・くらい。



マクドナルドの前で一時間ぐらい（ほど）待ちました。

I wouldn't use ごろ to describe an amount or length of time.


Difference between " Mae de and Mae ni" | Japan Forum (on the で、に
thing)

Ohh, damn you're right. That's my bad. Even in genki it has a paragraph on with verbs like "taberu" and "motsu", you need to use "de"

ex: 私はハーゲンダッツの前でメアリーさんを待ちました。

Thanks for letting me know though! I must've forgotten, and if you wouldn't have said anything, i would've kept making the same mistake.

 

[Toritoribe]

I wouldn't use ごろ to describe an amount or length of time.

Right. I misselected the term "time".
"一時間頃" does not make sense.
感覚としては、「一時間」は量として扱われますね。だ から「くらい」しか使えないんでしょうね。

They may be interchangeable but ごろ is a lot more common, at least in my experience, with these kinds of hourly or seasonal expressions than ぐらい・くらい。

ぐらい/くらい sounds more colloquial.
でも個人的には使用頻度でも意味的にも差はない気がし ますが。。。

マクドナルドの前で一時間待ちました。(makudonarudo no mae de ichi jikan machimashita.)

This is used commonly in conversation as the same meaning to "一時間くらい/ほど".

 

[Elizabeth]

Right. I misselected the term "time". "一時間頃" does not make sence.
感覚としては、「一時間」は量として扱われますね。だから「くらい」しか使えないんでしょうね。
ぐらい/くらい sounds more colloquial.

なるほど。基本的な文法（書き言葉）は割合に易しいなあ。。。